In a paper prepared with Professor Jane Bower of Glasgow Caledonian University, Hinks said such factors are often overlooked.
A recent study of the use of videoconferencing in healthcare delivery, for example, found it had the potential to change power relationships between doctors and patients, threatened to disrupt 'crucial processes', and could make conversations 'stilted or even confidence-threatening.'
Recent evidence, he said, indicated that applications are unlikely to be adopted unless there is substantial user input into their development.
Other social inhibitors include the role of tacit knowledge. According to Hinks, tacit knowledge — crucial in the exercise of expertise — is difficult enough to communicate. Using videoconferencing may compound these difficulties. Meanwhile, the ability to keep trackable records of decisions could present legal concerns.
Despite the problems, Hinks said technologies such as videoconferencing have much to offer facilities management. This includes bringing a 'relatively nomadic' industry together for knowledge sharing and benchmarking activities.
Videoconferencing could also allow facilities teams to troubleshoot around the globe from home, and facilities firms to test new markets.
Caber is involved in a project that exports technical advice from the UK to contractors in Brazil via videoconferencing .
Caber is seeking participants for a forum in London in the autumn on the use of virtual working practices in facilities management.
John Hinks is on 0141 331 6038.
Source
The Facilities Business